The Senate Nominations Committee this afternoon approved the nomination of Don McLeroy, R-College Station, as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education. The Senate now must confirm McLeroy by a two-thirds vote.

Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller is releasing the following statement:

“If the Texas Senate genuinely cares about quality public education, they will rejectas state board chairman a man who apparently agrees that parents who want to teach their kids about evolution are monsters,” Miller said. “And we’ll see whether senators really want a chairman who presides over a board that is so focused on ‘culture war’ battles that it has made Texas look like an educational backwater to the rest of the country.”

Gov. Perry appointed McLeroy board chairman in July 2007. Since then, the board has turned debates over language arts and science curriculum standards in “culture war” battlegrounds. Chairman McLeroy has also endorsed a book that says parents who want to teach children about evolution are “monsters” and calls clergy who see no conflict between faith and science “morons.” This spring McLeroy led other creationists on the state board in adopting new science curriculum standards that call the scientific consensus on evolution into question and no longer include references to scientific estimates of the age of the universe.

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The Texas Freedom Network is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of faith and community leaders who support public education, religious freedom and individual liberties.